Scott Drew stayed the course at Baylor in a story that seems to have been written for Hollywood

360 Sports has shifted its coverage slightly, but will now put out a weekly column by Riley Zayas on a current topic in the world of sports as well as some possible articles by other contributors. Above image by Yahoo News

Baylor was victorious on the scoreboard Monday night, but it was college basketball that truly won.

In a current age where coaches bounce from school to school, seeking the next best opportunity, Scott Drew stayed the course. He earned a victory for college basketball that reaffirmed that there is still commitment in the head coaching ranks.

In 2003, the Baylor head coach headed south from Valparaiso, a mid-major powerhouse, and took over a program in Waco, Texas, at a school where reaching “March Madness” was a distant dream.

Scandal plagued the program in Drew’s early years, as he inherited a mess, with a small number of scholarships to work with, a conference-only schedule for the 2005-2006 season as harsh penalties were handed down by the NCAA, and an awful hard time recruiting to a place where the basketball team had received more coverage in recent years for its off the court issues than its on-court play.

Yet, Drew had a vision in 2003.

“I did not come to go to the NCAA Tournament. We came to win games at the NCAA Tournament,” Drew said in his introductory press conference. “We came with the chance to win a national championship at Baylor University.”

Monday night culminated a story that seems to have been written for Hollywood, as Baylor became just the second men’s basketball team from the Lone Star State to win a national title. Drew easily could have left when it got hard. He was a phenomenal coach with plenty of other programs pursuing him for their head coaching positions. But he remained in Waco, and after 18 years finally broke through.

In fact, Drew was not rewarded for his tireless effort with a winning season until the 2007-2008 season.

It seems only fitting that a team that was the underdog for so many years, would have been pegged to fall to Gonzaga on Monday night by many experts, including CBS’ Charles Barkley, Matt Norlander and Jerry Palm.

The Bears proved those doubters wrong from the opening tip, as the experienced squad was poised, found its rhythm and never looked back, en route to a 86-70 victory over the previously unbeaten Zags that saw Baylor hit 10 threes and shoot 45 percent from the field.

Gonzaga failed to keep up, and Baylor’s talent level was put on display. The ball movement by the Bears on offense was incredible, and the defensive intensity reflected the passion of their head coach.

An elated Drew said postgame, “If I’m going to war, I’m taking these guys.”

There was clearly something different about this Baylor team when it came to the intangibles. The Bears did not just play for each other this season, they went to battle together. Not once did I see, throughout the course of the season, one player trying to put the team on his back. Winning is a collective effort for this Baylor group, and will continue to be as Drew presses forth with his program.

And that is why Baylor was hoisting the national trophy high last night. What Drew has built at Baylor, how he reconstructed the program from ground zero, is something that will forever embed his name into the college basketball record books. He stayed the course, he stayed committed, and he showed the country last night that commitment pays off.